Thursday, March 30, 2006

Deja-vu all over again

Tell me this doesn't sound familiar. Bush needs a boost and Iran is in his sights. All this posturing about diplomacy is a crock and these are the money quotes to prove it.

John Bolton. "It sends an unmistakable message to Iran that its efforts to deny the obvious fact of what it's doing are not going to be sufficient."

Russia and China urge a cautious approach while "the West has refused to rule out sanctions, and U.S. officials have said the threat of military action must also remain on the table."

And perhaps most telling of Bush strategy:

In a confidential letter earlier this month, Britain argued for including the other permanent Security Council members in talks with Iran. In exchange, they hoped to secure Russian and Chinese support for increasing pressure on Iran through binding council resolutions that could be enforced militarily.

A senior European official said on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the media that Britain's "proposal is not off the table." But a U.S. official, who also requested anonymity for the same reason, said Washington opposed including more countries in the negotiations.

"From the beginning, our position has been that we don't think it's helpful to have other countries joining the EU-3 in the dialogue because it has the potential of diluting the Western position on Iran," he said.

Right, we wouldn't want to "dilute" the Bush administration's push to pull another ass-saving military strike out of their hat. Silly me. I thought international negotiations should include everyone. Eerily similar to the run-up to Iraq, don't you think?

I almost wish they'd just be honest about that. I mean, I'd still be pissed, but it would be refreshing for the a-holes to admit that they are, after all, a-holes. Even if they do follow that up with, "suck it!"